Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c9.48

c9.48

The Purana was regarded with high respect even by the brahmans who upheld the Vedas specially. Thus the Atharva-veda says⁵—The ṛcs, and the sāmans, the metres, the Purāṇa, together with the Yajus, all gods in the heavens, founded upon heaven, were born of the ucchiṣṭa. The Chāndogya Upaniṣad says⁶—The (hymns of the) Atharvāngiras are the bees, the Itihāsa-Purāṇa is the flower : and this simile, as expressed, implies that those hymns drew their sustenance from the Itihāsa and Purana, which must therefore have been ancient like those hymns. Both these passages imply that the Purana was something definite, like the other compositions mentioned, and was not a novel thing then.